New Echo Park development starts to take shape

After years of challenges by neighbors, a change of ownership and months of hillside grading, construction recently began on the first of 15 homes in the Artis development in the Elysian Heights section of Echo Park. The wood framing for the small-lot development off Allesandro Street near Rosebud Avenue began about 1-1/2 weeks ago, said Bill Pisetsky Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Van Daele Development, which has teamed up with with developer Planet Home Living on the project. A pair of model homes are expected to be completed by March, with the first phase of eight homes scheduled to be completed soon after. No pricing yet but sales of new homes in Eagle Rock, Echo Park and Silver Lake have Pisetsky and his partners “cautiously optimistic” about demand.

The development at the base of a hillside will feature contemporary-style, two and three-bedroom homes with as much as 2,100-square-feet of space. While the marketing of Artis has not yet begun, potential home buyers have already started contacting the builders after seeing a small sign on the construction site, Pisetsky said. “We expect a fast sales pace.”

Meanwhile, Planet Home Living, which is in the process of seeking city approvals to build two more Echo Park projects on Echo Park Avenue and along Douglas Street, is buying more building sites between Hollywood and Echo Park, said Michael Marini of Planet Home. “We [are in] escrow on a couple of more sites in the area,” he said.

24 comments

Sure is nice of our Councilman Eric Garcetti to do NOTHING to help residents thwart this overdevelopment of undersized housing. Building something there is one thing; drastic over building, coupled with drastically undersized small lot development is VERY wrong.

But Garcetti has shown time and again that he is completely in favor of any and all overdevelopment, and in fact will act behind the scenes to make sure it gets all the approvals it needs, no matter what he is telling opponents and constituents.

Of course, not surprising if you look at his political contributor list — mostly developers and landlords interests! He is completely sold out, and this development is just one of the results of his money grubbing. That money might be legal, but is is still corruption, and Garcetti is corrupt.

It’s next to major thoroughfares, and has good freeway access. It’s a large undevloped parcel on land that hasn’t been rendered unbuildable by the baseline hillside ordinance like a lot of hillside parcels. where’s the overdevelopment? oh right any development is overdevlopment.

Oh, I’m so tired of the “undeveleoped parcel” line. What’s wrong with having an open space be just that? Oh, and couple this with the proposed development at Clifford and Glendale, on BOTH sides of Glendale, PLUS the retooling of the 2 freeway offramp with 2 schools where parents drop off kids right during peak rush hour and you start to get why this development will impact the neighborhood in a really negative way, making more and more like the Santa Monica, where you can’t move or build anymore, and which is under constant construction and always jammed with traffic. And that’s how it’s overdevelopment.

Being so close to a freeway wouldn’t there be health risks? I hope perspective buyers are presented with a copy of the September 2012 USC’s Keck School of Medicine study about living so close to a busy freeway (cough, cough.) Also, a Los Angeles City official stated that mistakes were made and there were misinterpretations regarding this project – and that tidbit was caught on tape during a public meeting. Shame, shame, shame………. Go Wendy Greuel!!!!!!!

As part of the conditions the public was to have approximately 1.1 acres of open space. Uhhhhhhh, what happened to it? I said it before and I’ll say it again, “This pile of crap would not have happened if Mitch O’Farrell was councilmember.” Here that Ana?

Yes he did. I’ve lived in CD 13 for over 12 years. During those years Eric Garcetti’s staff has had a few good people, a few not so good. And then there are those that are/were stellar: Sally Martinez and Mitch O’Farrell. Whenever I heard Eric Garcetti’s name being mentioned , I immediately thought of Mitch O’Farrell – and I was not alone in that assessment

we are getting 7 shoeboxes maxing out a lot on a street of 1-storey craftsman houses & casitas. no recourse with l.a. city planning department, at the public hearing they were not interested in our dismay or concerns re: density, height, blockage or air & light,elimination of privacy for littler houses, or even that the dodger traffic already paralyzes us half the year in our little semi-cul-de-sac. so the project was presented as a ‘fait accompi’ — the hearing was a total sham. re: garcetti: he tried to seduce my husband right in front of me… pretty tacky.

Before the mayoral election, Echo Parkers need to mobilize and let the rest of the city know how Garcetti sold out this neighborhood to out of town developers just to grease the wheels for his own political career. Villaraigosa redux, just wait. Everyone and their brother is a “friend” of Garcetti. Please. He has been no friend to Echo Park even when he lived here!

it is a privately owned lot, zoned for residential building. I think it is great to put pressure on them to plant, reduce and conform and consider people with disabilities, etc, but if they are following the law, what’s your beef? You ought to have considered the zoning and possible uses before you bought near by. If you don’t like the small lot ordinance, force a change in the law! In fact there are many benefits to the small lot ordinance. Why would the city consider a pocket park here with Elysian park and it’s extension so near by? And the base ball traffic argument is totally bs, here. Traffic flows along Riverside, Stadium way, Sunset et. Not to mention that foot traffic in the area is very low. I even concede that the red car line area gets real foot traffic use. But this area never got a lot of real use.

Communities with residential areas need buffer zones between BAD air freeways. This site, if left as is would have made a great pocket park perhaps if Quimby funds were used…or some funds from the 2 freeway were allocated to essential buffer zones for healthy communities. However, this need has not been given much thought, if any. Superficial gentrification and progress comes with a high price. 60 mature trees ( oak and black walnut) were slaughtered and sent to landfill. Hawks and other area wildlife be damed. Flippers are here to rule the roost.

I noticed that the photos were taken from above, so that people can’t see how the developer destroyed that lovely tree filled lot by hacking half of the hill away! It looks like a mudslide just waiting to happen. At least these homes will be on a street that can handle the traffic, not like the butt ugly suburban style townhouse they put up on Echo Park next to Chango! That park of the neighborhood is already backed up during rush hour. No more OC developers should be allowed in the EP, they have no respect for our neighborhood.

Several of us are drafting a letter to the city asking the developer be required to install fire hydrants on Montana, Douglass and Elysian Park Drive. If you would like to see the letter and add your name, please contact [email protected] by Jan 20th to be included. Thank you, Tamar Halpern

Please keep your comments civil and on topic and refrain from personal attacks. The moderator reserves the right to edit or delete any comments. The Eastsider's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy apply to comments submitted by readers. Required fields are marked *